I'll Take Care of You (Promise? Promise)
by MagicInHerMadness
Summary: Mike visits Ginny in the hospital after her shoulder gives on the field


**This is based on a prompt I got on tumblr for a fic where Ginny has surgery. It was pretty ambiguous so I ran with it.**

Mike hated the smell of hospitals more than anything else. They made him think of his twinging knees, his numbered days. But Baker's there, so here he is. He had known about the twinge in her shoulder (he was used to seeing her shake it around the sixth), but he never thought she'd need surgery.

(He also never thought he'd be nauseous at the sound of a shriek from the pitcher's mound. He watched her hit the ground, clutching her dislocated shoulder, and his knees forgot every injury as he raced to her. He instinctively covered her face, knowing the sight of her arm hanging limp would have sent her into shock-he was damn near there himself-and shushed her cries

"I can't let you see it, rook. I can't let you see it," he murmured as Blip and the trainer joined him.

The Rangers batter knelt beside Mike, their rivalry forgotten. He stared down at the uncovered side of Ginny's face. "Look at me, darlin'. You're fine. You're fine."

"I'm not," she wailed, struggling against Mike's grasp. She looked at him with terrified eyes. "My arm, Mike! My arm!"

Mike held his hands firm, blocking her view as the trainer called for the stretcher to be brought out. "I can't let you see it, Gin. Trust me, please."

She nodded, trusting him but still crying. He hated to see women cry, but something about it being Ginny made it worse and he had to blink away his own tears.)

Blip had called him at almost sunrise three days later. Ginny was fully awake and asking for him. He nearly leapt out of bed (apparently being worried to death about his rookie—yeah, it was a team thing and that was the story he'd tell unless someone put a gun to his head—was doing wonders for his joints) and threw on anything so he could get to the hospital. He rode the elevator with clenched fists, only exhaling when he reached her floor. He had been calling around the clock to see if she was up yet, but she never managed more than half an hour. And something had rooted him to his couch, to his TV watching it happen over and over. Blip was waiting in front of her door. Mike raced to him, not even aware of his crazed expression.

"Okay first of all, breathe a few times." Mike's eyes nearly bulged out of his head and Blip smirked. "Well since that's not gonna happen, I'll just move on. She's fine. The surgery was a complete success. Thank god she's twenty-five and healthier than all hell. They put two pins in her shoulder and she's gonna need some PT but she's looking good for next season."

Mike exhaled again, unabashed relief washing over his face, and Blip's eyebrows quirked. He'd mostly given up any prospect of making Mike tell the truth about his feelings. Mike tried not to sound too eager. "Is she still up?"

Blip nodded. "I should tell you that she's on Fentanyl. She's a fucking kite right now, but as soon as she was lucid, she asked for you."

Mike nodded and followed Blip into the room. Ginny sat on the bed, examining the hand on her free arm. Blip gave him a knowing smile then turned back to the pitcher. "Look who's here, Gin. It's Mike."

She looked up, a toothy grin on her face. "Lawson! What are you doing here?"

Mike looked at Blip who shrugged, then walked over to the bed. "I came to see you, rookie. How you feeling?"

She pointed to arm, strapped to her chest in a sling. "Fucked up my arm, but I feel...nice."

He looked at the cast on her thin arm and his stomach knotted. But then his eyes found her smiling face and he cracked a grin. He couldn't help but smile as he looked at had been on Fentanyl once, remembered the liquid feeling of everything. He could see that she wasn't feeling any pain, still on the initial dosage. "I can see that."

Mike sat on the bed beside her and Ginny smiled as she leaned over to rest her chin on his shoulder. He almost laughed at her loopy grin, watching her thin fingers spider crawl up his arm, apparently fascinated by the thin layer of hair on it. "I was on ESPN this morning."

He nodded, taking hold of her thin fingers. She wiggled them against his calloused palm, her smile immovable. Mike smiled too though the footage of her arm snapping made him dry heave for ten minutes. "I saw you, rookie."

She looked up at with an expression that was almost serious. He guessed her high was dwindling. "You were there, weren't you?"

He nodded. "Yeah I was. I rode with you to the hospital."

She frowned. "I don't remember what happened."

"Your shoulder gave out when you were pitching. Happened a million times." It was Mike's turn to frown. "You did almost give an old man a heart attack though, Gin."

"I'm sorry." Her frown deepened. Her eyes were surprisingly clear and his Ginny was back, however briefly. "Is my arm gonna be okay? Blip won't tell me anything."

"You've got two pins in your shoulder. You're gonna need some PT. But you're healthy as hell so you'll be back in no time."

The corners of her mouth didn't turn up like he thought they would. "What if I can't play baseball anymore? I can't do anything else, Mike."

"You're gonna play again, probably next season." He tweaked the tip of her nose, gave his best Mike Lawson grin. "Don't worry about anything. You know I'll take care of you, rook."

"Promise?" She lifted her good hand, extended her small pinky.

Mike reconsidered his assumption about her medication but locked his pinky with hers. "Promise."

"Okay," she replied.

He had always imagined it would be him who collapsed in the middle of a game and was rushed to the hospital. He smiled at her then, ran his hand through her wild curls. "You just had to be a little shit and have the first surgery of the season, didn't you?"

She didn't reply and he looked down at her, not surprised to find her eyes closed, fluttering as she drifted away. Her hand was still in his, her fingers intertwined with his as she snored softly on his shoulder. He glanced around the room, wondering when Blip had left. Finding them alone, he took the opportunity to caress her delicately boned face. He traced her cheekbone then the bridge of her snub nose and finally the outline of her lips. He caressed her bottom lip with his thumb and her lips puckered like she was expecting a kiss. He almost went for it, but it wasn't the right time. When he finally had the balls to cross that line, he wanted her awake, and fully cognizant.

She was still on his shoulder when Evelyn entered. She stopped a few steps from the doorway, feeling like she'd interrupted something, especially with Mike's face so red. She straightened her shoulders, casually said, "I just came to do something to her hair. I'm glad she's out. She's been cranky as hell."

Mike looked at her in surprise. "She was over the moon when I got here. They might have just doped her up though."

Evelyn smirked as she sat behind Ginny and reached out to part her hair down the middle. "Or she was just happy to finally see you. You know she kept asking for you while they were putting her under."

Mike only shrugged and Evelyn rolled her eyes. "Oh so you're still denying it."

"I don't know what you're talking about Ev," he replied. Evelyn began braiding Ginny's hair and Mike looked down at her sleeping face. She was dead to the world.

"Mike, my clothes zip on and off, not my head, so spare me. And I would think with this being your last season that you'd have told her by now."

"I haven't even told her I'm not coming back." It was his orthopedist who finally gave his career the axe. He had told Mike in no uncertain terms that another season would put his knees beyond even the best reconstruction. He'd have to get them replaced, and no one played again after a double replacement. Add that to the fact that his right hip was starting to give him trouble, and there was nothing to be done but give it up. At 39, Mike knew he'd had a better run than most, but that didn't make saying goodbye any easier. And what would he tell Ginny? He had made peace with this being it, but he couldn't handle the look on her face when he told her that this was their last run, that she would be carrying on without him next spring.

Evelyn shrugged. "I think on some level she knows. But that has nothing to do with telling her you love her. She deserves to know."

Mike shook his head. "She deserves the career she's worked so hard for, Ev."

"And why can't she have both? Why does every other player get to have a family and a career but her? Is it because her itty-bitty lady brain can't handle two different lives? Or maybe because being married means she's gotta have babies springing up like daisies?" He didn't expect the ire bubbling beneath her words and when he looked at her frowning face, she relaxed and sighed. "I'm sorry to be so snappy, but I'm tired of everybody making her a mule. She's got a lot riding on her, but she's still a person at the end of the day. And no one's ever let her be a person. You know she's never been to a school dance? She didn't even go to prom. She's missed so much—and gained so much more—but don't let her miss this. Don't let yourself miss this, Mike. Tell her."

Mike mulled it over, looked down at her face. He gently tapped the tip of her nose, smiling when it twitched. He looked back at Evelyn. "What if she doesn't..."

"And what if I sprout wings? Since we're discussing impossibilities, let's discuss them all." She finished one braid, started on the other. She leveled him with a serious stare. "Look, I'm sorry to be so preachy, but I've only seen what you two have one other time. And that was me and Blip. And there have been some hard days, but I wouldn't trade my worst days with him for my best with anyone else. It's just...right. And you and Ginny are right. I've watched you together. You even breathe in sync."

Mike knew it was true as he gently lifted Ginny's head so Evelyn could gather all her hair. She stirred just enough, sleepily muttered, "Where you going?"

Aware of Evelyn's serious stare, he looked down at his half-conscious rookie. "Nowhere, Gin. Go back to sleep."

"Wanna burger," she replied, her eyes still closed.

He smiled, holding her face in his hands. "Okay. I'll get you one when you wake up."

Satisfied, she drifted back off to sleep, her chin on his shoulder. Evelyn smiled, shaking her head. "Sure as cornbread goes with greens, you're the answer to her dreams, Mike."

Mike laughed. "Is that some Texan wisdom?"

"Sure is," Evelyn answered proudly. "But seriously, she's asked for you every time she was conscious, even if it was five minutes. Tell me what that means."

"She's my rookie. She counts on me." It was the single biggest piece of bullshit that had ever come out of his mouth, and that was saying something.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "And what does it mean that you've been calling my husband more than me to check on her, but it took us three days to get you here."

He sighed. "I couldn't... Seeing her like this... Knowing she's hurt and... I can't fix this, Ev. She's my rookie, my responsibility, and I let this happen to her. I didn't make her tell somebody how bad she was hurting. But I didn't expect this. I swear I didn't. She's twenty-five, in better shape that I could ever dream of being even at the height of my game. I didn't think her arm would give. And then it did and she was crying and asking if she was okay, and..."

"I remember when it happened to Blip. I couldn't look at him lying in a hospital bed, couldn't watch him hurt. That's the only downside of love. You've gotta shoulder somebody else's pain. No pun intended." She chuckled at her own accidental joke then looked at him seriously. "When she's better, or at least not doped out of her skull, tell her."

Mike nodded, not sure if he'd have the courage.

X

Mike almost laughed at Ginny refusing to eat. She kept shaking her head, her mouth a pouty line. "I'm not hungry, Blip."

"Ginny, I've got two kids. You're not gonna win this battle." He tried to force the fork in her good hand, but she dropped it defiantly. Blip sighed, clenching his fists, and Mike could tell he was close to yelling. He should have been. He was still going to practice every day and coming to the hospital to sit with Ginny right after then going home to do it all over again. Evelyn was doing the same, handling the kids and running the Madres, the Padres' WAG charity group. She sat in a chair beside Mike, already having given up feeding the stubborn rookie. Mike smirked as he pushed out of his chair, walked over to Blip who was going back and forth in yes/no argument with Ginny about eating. "Walk it off, Sanders."

Blip went to sit beside Evelyn who smiled as she rubbed his knee. "She's just crashing, babe."

"She's the devil," Blip replied with a shake of his head though he smiled.

Mike sat on the bed beside his grimacing rookie. They were trying to keep her from developing a dependency on the fentanyl (Mike knew of a few guys it had taken down when it first hit the sports medicine market) and had started putting gaps in her doses, replacing it with non-narcotic Tylenol that apparently wasn't doing much for her shoulder. He pushed a stray curl out of her face and she frowned, shaking her head at him. "Baker, you've gotta eat."

"I don't wanna eat right now. I'll do it later."

"Later you're gonna be doped up and asleep again."

She shrugged her good shoulder and Mike moved the plate of baked chicken out of her face. "Here, let's eat the soup."

He picked up her spoon and dipped it in the bowl of warm vegetable soup. Ginny defiantly turned her head away. Apparently her injury had made her a three-year-old. He took a bite and smiled. "Not bad. It definitely came out of a can, but probably a good one."

Ginny watched him eat a few spoonfuls, seeming to enjoy himself. She frowned. "Don't eat all my soup."

"I'm sorry. I thought you'd eat later." He dipped up a spoonful of the soup and held it to her mouth but she pulled a face and recoiled from the spoon.

"I have a pretty good idea of where your mouth has been and I'll pass."

"My mouth has been here every night but thanks for letting me know what you dream about rookie."

Blip and Evelyn watched as he talked to her, irritated her into laughing, and made her finish the bowl of soup. They bickered like children and old married people simultaneously, and he had even gotten her to eat half the chicken by the time the nurse came to give her her nightly dose of Fentanyl. Ginny swung her legs over the bed. "I should go to the bathroom first."

"Definitely. I promised to take care of you, rook, but I'm not cleaning you up."

Ginny snorted. "Whatever. You're gonna need diapers way before me, old man."

She went into the bathroom and Mike helped the nurse clear Ginny's dinner dishes, pointedly ignoring Blip and Evelyn looking at him. He smirked as they talked like he wasn't in the room. Blip asked, "Is it your turn or mine?"

"I did it last night," Evelyn answered.

"So I'm up."

"And I'm calling you off, Sanders," Mike replied.

"He did get her to eat so let's let him have this one, Blip," Evelyn requested.

Blip chuckled. "I hate to let him off the hook, but okay."

Ginny emerged from the bathroom and Mike helped her back into bed, apologizing softly when she bumped her sling on the railing though he had nothing to do with it. He pulled the covers up around her thin legs, the bed making her seem even smaller, and recalled Evelyn's words about not wanting to see the one you loved so helpless. The nurse gave her the medicine and she leaned back against the pillows. "Turn on the tv."

" _Please_. Turn on the tv, _please_ ," Mike muttered loud enough for her to hear and laugh at as he turned on the television. She immediately began her marathon channel flipping and Mike took the remote from her, perching on the side of the bed. "We are _not_ doing that, rookie."

"Doing what? I'm seeing what's on."

"No. You sit for an hour changing the channel every two seconds until you decide on cartoons like always, and I'm not going for it tonight."

Her incessant channel surfing drove him mad, and if spending nights on her couch wasn't so fun, he'd have stopped hanging out with her weeks ago. But the mild annoyance was worth waking up with her head on his chest so he let it be.

He found the cartoons and handed her back the remote. "See how easy that was?"

They proceeded to bicker over Ginny wanting to know what else was on until Evelyn interrupted. "Just remembered we've got a house full of _actual_ children waiting for us."

"If they're bickering when we get home, I'm running for the border," Blip replied as he stood and stretched. They walked over to the bed and said their goodbyes, both giving Mike a pointed look that he ignored before they left. Mike turned back to Ginny, prepared to continue their argument, but her eyes were falling closed as the medicine kicked in. He moved to get off the bed and she stirred. "Where you going?"

"Chair," he replied. He pulled the chairs over beside the bed and sat in one, propping his feet up in the other. He handed Ginny the remote but her sleeping fingers twined around his as she dozed off.

On the hospital's bottom floor, Blip and Evelyn came face to face with Tommy when they got off the elevator. He asked, "Baker up?"

"Probably won't be for long," Evelyn replied. "But she's arguing with Mike about cartoons so she might stay up a few more minutes."

"I figured he'd be here since he hasn't been to the cages in three days." Tommy chuckled. "Did he tell her yet?"

Blip shook his head and Tommy mirrored the gesture. "So we've gotta spend the rest of the season watching them date subconsciously?"

Evelyn nodded and they began their walk to the parking deck. Blip said, "Maybe we should start a pool or something, make it interesting."

"Put my money on the longest shot you got," Tommy replied.

 **A/N: Don't forget to review or leave a prompt/request! XOXOXOXOXO**


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